Thursday Favourites - Polymer Clay Beads

As promised yesterday after discovering fellow sellers on Etsy had 'favourited' me I went on a search this morning for something special. After quickly realising I could quite easily spend 3 whole weeks solidly searching and always finding something different, I decided to narrow the search slightly. I decided first I would search for 'beads', as these are an essential part of my own jewellery making and great fun to look at, then I narrowed the choice down to Polymer Clay Beads. I am fascinated by Polymer Clay and it is definitely something I would love to learn how to use and I was not dissapointed today in my search - the variety of beads and jewellery produced with this medium is astounding.

So, here they are, my Five Thursday favourites:

Fimo Flora - The creations in this shop are just fantastic. All are handmade. The little characters are all very cute and very original. The choices range from elephants to peanuts and my favourite (for all those Winnie the Pooh fans) is the Heffalump. The prices are very reasonable as well. This shop is definitely one I shall be purchasing from in the future.

Jelly Beads Designs - This shop is full of handmade polymer beads in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. These include animals and characters, but also food and shapes. A lot of the beads are flatback but can also be purchased with holes and can also be glazed or left natural. They are also very reasonably priced and all beautifully photographed.

Tiny Ark - I found this shop by looking for rat beads and found some little mouse buttons instead. I liked this shop because it was a bit different, as it sells lovely, original buttons as opposed to beads. I have seen buttons used on jewellery though so felt it warranted inclusion. There are buttons of all shapes and sizes as well as animals such as some very cool bees. They are also machine washable so very useable.

Creative Spirit Too - I always thought of polymer clay being used to create beads in the shapes of animals, flowers, food etc. This fantastic shop showed me that it can also be used to create fantastic focal pendants and 'normal' round beads. The creations in this shop are just beautiful and I will definitely be shopping here for some beads to complement my knotted jewellery.

New Forest Beading - This is another seller who uses polymer create to create beads and pendants instead of objects. The pendants in this shop are highly detailed pieces in fantastic colours and would be perfect for one of a kind jewellery for someone very special.

So that's my five for today. I had great fun with this and hope anyone reading will find something useful. I have tried to find five shops that show the amazing range of things that can be done with polymer clay. Etsy is not just about buying handmade items, its also a fantiastic place to buy supplies for creating your own special pieces.

There will be five more on a different theme next Thursday.